


Hot Chocolate

by wholocker78218



Series: 25 Days of Christmas [2]
Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: ALL THE FLUFF, Christmas Fluff, Cute, Fluff, Gen, M/M, christmas cuteness, you get the point
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-02
Updated: 2020-12-02
Packaged: 2021-03-10 11:08:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27849958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wholocker78218/pseuds/wholocker78218
Summary: Prompt: Hot Chocolate, once again it got away from me.Rafael knew from the minute he woke up this was going be a long day. Queue Christmas cuteness and coffee fairy Carisi tot he rescue.Once again a terrible summary but I swear its cute so please read.
Relationships: Rafael Barba & Olivia Benson, Rafael Barba/Dominick "Sonny" Carisi Jr.
Series: 25 Days of Christmas [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2036830
Comments: 4
Kudos: 31





	Hot Chocolate

**Author's Note:**

> This is day 2 of my person 25 days of Christmas. 
> 
> Requests are open for the next 23 days, I write for Barson, Bangan, Barisi and potentially other Rafael Barba ships (even other Raúl Esparza characters too), just talk to me on asks or private messages on Tumblr @angelicdestieldemon

It was a bad morning, first Rafael slept in, then the hot water was out in his apartment and he was forced to take a cold shower. Then, his coffee machine decided this was going to be the morning it didn’t brew coffee even when he knew the timer had been set. The line was too long at his back-up coffee shop due to his lateness which meant he was arriving at the office on a bad morning without coffee. Queue an angry Cuban with snow in his hair and a tired expression stomping his way through Hogan Place to his office where his assistant Carmen was sitting at her desk talking with the one person Rafael was not in the mood to deal with, former detective now ADA Carisi. The happiest man alive.

Rafael is about to walk straight through to his office when he stops short at the sight of three coffee cups sitting on Carmen’s desk. Before he can stop himself Rafael almost slumps in relief.

“Please, please tell me one of those is for me?” Rafael pleads, foregoing any semblance of pride, frankly, he was lucky he wasn’t already on his knees.

Carisi turns to face him, that sunny smile directed his way is a punch in the chest and Rafael is definitely fighting to keep his knees steady. Carisi grabs the largest coffee cup and holds it out for Rafael to take, and Rafael leaps across the floor to take it from him, he doesn’t even realise until the cup is finished that in his haste, Rafael had trapped Carisi’s hand around the cup with his own. Rafael freezes refusing to make eye contact with the ADA.

“Can I have my hand back, please?” Carisi asks although it sounds more like a tease than anything else.

Rafael releases his grip around the cup and Carisi’s hand as if burned, willing himself to forget the warmth of the other man’s hands against his own hands, cold from the freezing weather outside.

“Anything for me this morning, Carmen?” Rafael diverts his attention from the grinning Italian to his assistant who is wearing a look of pure amusement, he glares at her with a tilt of his head, her smirk widens.

“Just your meeting with ADA Carisi,” she grins.

Rafael takes a deep breath and walks over to his office door, gesturing for Carisi to follow, “Come on, then Carisi, I don’t have all day.”

* * *

Rafael has lost track of how many times he has paced the room, trying to will himself to stay awake, Liv is sitting across the room from him equally as tired, her head resting in her hand.

“How much longer is this going to take?” He grumbles, his voice low and raw, this day has been far too long, all he wants to do is go to bed, but until the Sting has been completed, all they can do is wait.

The rest of the team is undercover, Carisi nipped out a while ago to answer his mobile and hasn’t returned which leaves Rafael and Olivia in her office, waiting for a phone call to let them go home.

Giving up on the relentless pacing, he collapses on the couch and before he can stop himself, he is leaning back to rest his head in Liv’s lap. Only after he’s closed his eyes does he realise what he’s done. However, before he can build the energy to move, one of Liv’s hands is in his hair, petting the mess of brown locks that he didn’t bother to put any product in this morning, in his haste to get ready.

“Do you want me to move, I think I have just enough energy to get myself back up?” He mumbles, feeling himself falling asleep more and more by the second.

The movement of her shaking silent laughter wakes him up again, but he still feels drowsy. “I don’t think you can go anywhere without coffee, and seeing as I’m stuck here, I think neither of us going anywhere to get some any time soon.” Rafael can hear the smile in her words. “You’re out of luck today, Rafa, the coffee fairy has taken the rest of the night off.”

He opens his eyes, to meet Liv’s looking down on him, her nails gently scratching across his scalp, “You’re a cat, Rafa, I’m surprised you aren’t purring.”

If it didn’t feel so good, he’d bat her hand away.

“How’s Noah, is he excited for Christmas?” He asks instead.

Rafael had been thinking about Noah a lot lately, mostly while passing toy stores on his days off, few and far between as they are, but it’s also impossible to think about this time of year without thinking about children and unlike his cousin’s kids and Amanda’s, Noah is the only child he knows well. Like a Christmas tree, Liv lights up in a way only discussion or sight of Noah can manage.

“He’s good, he’s currently working on his list to Santa. If I hear the word puppy one more time I may explode so- don’t you dare,” she scolds as he opens his mouth, Liv clamps her hand over it, a grin playing on her lips at his childishness, but he merely quirks an eyebrow until she removes her hand. “He’s been asking after his favourite Uncle… and you of course,” this time Rafael does swat her hand away but then moves it back to his head after he’s made his point.

“I miss him, but I’m glad he’s happy, let me know what’s on his list to Santa, I’d like to get him something he wants,” he asks, usually shopping for children makes him nervous but for Noah, Rafael is looking forward to the prospect.

“He’d love that, what are your plans for Christmas, are you spending it with your mother?” She asks, her nails moving down to his neck, softly scratching as his skin.

“No, she’s going on a cruise with some of my cousins, they invited me along but being stuck on a boat with my family for two weeks sounds more like hell than a holiday, I’ll just watch movies and get some work done,” he replies.

As much as he loves his family, it would be a solid two weeks of questioning his love life, why he doesn’t have any children? If he’s seeing anyone and everything in between.

Suddenly his hair is being gripped hard enough to sting but not enough to really hurt, “You’re planning on spending Christmas alone? Why didn’t you tell me?” She sounds hurt.

“I didn’t want to bother you, you have enough to worry about with Noah, I didn’t want you worrying about me as well,” he reasons, raising a hand to smooth over the stinging part of his scalp.

“You, Rafael Barba, are an idiot. I’m not letting you spend Christmas alone; you’re coming to mine; you can give Noah his present and we’ll have a large dinner that makes us incapable of doing anything other than watching Christmas movies on the couch.” Rafael doesn’t even need to think about it, how could he argue with that, spending Christmas day with his best friend and her son?

Rafael nods his head, and they stay like than in silence for a while, he’s beginning to feel sleepy again when Carisi barrels through the door, the only way he can at three AM, a smile on his face, although even he looks tired.

“Looks like the coffee fairy heard our prayers,” Liv mutters, and Rafael's chest shakes in silent laughter.

“Sorry, am I interrupting something?” Carisi asks, his expression not matching his confusion if anything Rafael would say he’s upset about something, but that isn’t reflected in his voice.

“Just waiting for that magic phone call that will send us home, anyway, is that coffee, it doesn’t smell like coffee?” Rafael mumbles, the energy he had earlier to move is gone, he’s moving for no one at this point.

“Not exactly, I figured we all might be slowly losing the will to stay awake but given the fact we may be able to go home at any moment I figured hot chocolate was the way to go,” he says, handing a cup to Olivia, pausing before handing Rafael a cup, “However, I also know that if I gave you anything without caffeine, you’d never talk to me again so I asked them to put half a shot of coffee in yours,” Rafael melts at the cheeky but still tired smile Carisi shoots him, even exhausted at three in the morning, Carisi’s smile shines like the sun, it makes Rafael’s heart hurt.

“Thank you, Sonny,” Liv says, breaking the silent tension in the room, a knowing grin on her face that Rafael chooses to ignore, he takes a draw of the drink and sighs as the caffeine hits his tongue, his lips twitching up in a half-smile.

In a brief moment of a caffeine euphoria, he uses the little energy he has to move his legs, letting Carisi sit on the couch with the two of them before placing his legs back in the ADA’s lap. The man shoots him an amused smile, which Rafael responds with only a quirked eyebrow. The room is silent once again, only the softened sounds from the city below disrupting it, but having lived in the city long enough, each of them can reduce it to white noise. The peaceful ambience makes it harder to ignore the warmth Carisi radiates though, he can feel it through where his legs are resting on the man’s lap, and the large hand resting on Rafael’s ankle.

That train of thought leads Rafael down a spiral of wondering how that warmth would feel pressed against his back when he wakes up in the mornings, or how Carisi’s hand would warm his while they walked through the winter streets together. Rafael can’t help but stare at the man, how far he has come from touring precincts to finding a home here in the Manhattan SVU team. From shadowing Rafael to becoming an ADA, the feeling of pride and that little something else that Rafael refuses to name burns in his chest every time he lays his eyes on the man.

Carisi looks up from his phone in time to catch Rafael’s gaze and instead of looking away, Rafael just looks back. There is something between them, but Rafael can’t bring himself to act on it, maybe he’s a coward, but there is too much at risk, or so he tells himself. He doesn’t want to lose the friendship but call it old age, he wants someone to come home to on nights like these. Rafael can see a future with Carisi, he can see it all, the late nights watching films on the couch, days in the office bickering and debating, smirks prominent on their faces.

Rafael is looking forward to spending Christmas Day with Liv and Noah but there is a part of him, bigger than he’s ready to admit to himself, that wishes he could at least wake up in the arms of someone he cares about. Hell, the reason he woke up so late this morning was that he couldn’t bring himself to leave the dream of Carisi’s arms wrapped around him.

Carisi’s gaze is still locked on Rafael’s when Liv’s phone finally rings to tell them the sting was successful, and they can go home to their beds for a precious few hours before coming back in to finish off this case in time for Christmas.

Rafael grabs his stuff with the little energy he has left from the hot chocolate and orders an Uber on his phone, Liv locks up her office behind them and heads home, leaving Rafael and Carisi alone outside the building, the cold air already making Rafael wish the driver would hurry up.

“You don’t have to wait you know? Only one of us has to freeze tonight,” Rafael jokes, but Carisi just sends him a look that says he isn’t going anywhere until Rafael’s car has arrived. For someone who talks a lot, Carisi has been surprisingly quiet tonight, there must be something on his mind, Rafael wonders.

Rafael rolls his eyes in response to Carisi’s expression. A few minutes pass before he sees his Uber pull up, Carisi walks over with him, even going as far as opening the door, like a gentleman. Carisi must see the smirk Rafael is sporting and rolls his own eyes, a soft smile playing on his lips.

Rafael is about to get in the car when he feels a hand on his arm, he turns just in time to see a moment of hesitation pass over Carisi’s face before he’s being kissed.

Rafael’s mind goes blank, his eyes shut automatically, and he finds himself gripping Carisi’s elbow to hold him in place before they break apart. The kiss was chaste and yet utterly perfect, Rafael can’t bring himself to speak but he waves any worry Carisi might have with a smile, a genuinely happy if a little tired, smile.

“Goodnight, Rafael.”

“Goodnight… Sonny.” And there’s that sunshine smile once again.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed, I appreciate everyone who reads my work even if you dont leave kudos or comments I appreciate you taking the time. Have a wonderful Christmas however you celebrate (or don't celebrate)!


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